Welcome! We are all students of the bees. They are much to complex to ever master but they are forgiving and can overcome a lot of our meddling in their lives. They fascinate and pollinate and will provide you with honey for your table and beeswax for your candles and pollen, propolis and royal jelly for your medicine cabinet. Bee stings for your arthritis too, many including myself, believe.

The hopelessly lost choice of location is cute but will not help people answer many of your questions. Lots of advice is best received from knowledgeable beekeepers in your zip code or close to it. Find a local beekeepers club and start attending meetings. People in warmer country are constantly challenged and knowledgeable for instance of Small hive beetles which will destroy a hive. I am blissfully ignorant of them as I look out the window at a foot of snow and am waiting for the warmup from last nights far below zero temperatures. Look at the history of the many conversation threads and ask questions on what you don't understand.

It is getting late in the spring to find bees for this year so depending on your plans, you will need to find bees pretty quickly.

Location fixed! :)Remember hopelessly lost is forum default location until it is changed in forum profile. :)Welcome to Beemaster. You can check with Brushy Mountain or Rossmans. I know Brushy said they are sold out of bee packages, but perhaps they have a list you can get on if someone cancels?

Welcome to the forum, Lulu. Once you get your equipment, if you can't find any bees, maybe you can find a swarm. I am just a hobbyist, and like to run 5 to 7 hives. I have give swarms to people, local, that have lost their bees. If you get into your local club you may find some there also. Good luck on the adventure.

Welcome, Laowai Wake county has one of the biggest and best bee clubs in the state. Try to make the meeting Mar. 11. Between them and this forum, you have all the info you will ever need, and maybe even some hands on help.

"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"